Q&A: Ella Red Makes Her Lollapalooza Debut
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA☆
Audrey Hertel
ELLA RED GETS UNFILTERED — Ella Red's debut at Lollapalooza marked the arrival of an artist stepping fully into her own creative identity. Fresh off the release of her latest album, IT'S NOT REAL, the rising pop songstress brought an emotionally charged performance to the festival on Friday, July 26, introducing festivalgoers to a body of work that refuses to shy away from life's heaviest conversations. Through soaring pop melodies, unfiltered lyricism, and fearless vulnerability, Red’s authenticity is the driving force behind her artistry.
While IT'S NOT REAL may carry a title that suggests illusion, the album is anything but detached from reality. Instead, it serves as an intimate exploration of mental health, grief and mortality.
During her Lollapalooza performance, Red invited the audience into her world.
“I think that with IT'S NOT REAL, there was a lot of anger I needed to let out, and there's also such strength and softness,” Red tells Luna. “With my next songs that I'm releasing, there's still so much anger in them and so much power in them. I'm also leaning into that soft side a little bit more, and so I want to still embrace that softness, but show that there are two sides of the same.”
As IT'S NOT REAL continues to introduce audiences to a fearless new chapter, Red is already looking ahead.
Ahead of her debut performance at Lollapalooza, Luna sat down with Red to discuss the fearless creative evolution behind IT'S NOT REAL. During the conversation, Red reflected on allowing herself to experiment beyond traditional pop conventions, shared how she mentally and physically prepares for one of the biggest performances of her career, and opened up about the overwhelming support the album has received since its release.
Audrey Hertel
LUNA: Thank you for sitting down and talking to Luna. For any readers who aren’t familiar yet, what kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
ELLA: I would say a lot of what has inspired my sound has been my own mental health, the mental health of those around me, just trying to cope with my own feelings. Especially with my first album that just came out, it was a lot of trying to cope with the idea of death, and then also just growing up whenever you realize that all of the things you thought whenever you were young would be figured out when you're an adult, and then you become an adult, and you're like, “oh, none of these things are actually figured out, and it's still all a shit show.” That was what my first album is about, and now I'm leaning more into experimenting because there's so much I still feel like I need to learn when it comes to creating music and writing. I'm still trying to figure out what my style is, what I like and what feels good.
LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or space do you aim to create for your listeners?
ELLA: To say the things that they don't know how to put words to themselves because there are so many times where we're feeling a certain way and we don't know how to describe the way that we're feeling, and that's how I feel so often. Then I write a song about it, and suddenly it all makes sense. I want to continue being a feel-good for a lot of my fans who are like, “Oh my gosh, finally something that says exactly how I've been.”
LUNA: You released the IT’S NOT REAL album earlier this year. Now that it’s been out in the world for a bit, how has the response and support been from fans and loved ones since the release? Has anything surprised you about how people have connected with it?
ELLA: It's been incredible. I don't think anything really surprised me. I've always been very confident in how my growth would go. I would say my growth has been very quick, very exponential. But at the same time, I was just so happy that art that I created would be acknowledged in such a way by so many strangers, and especially with the amount of live shows I do. I see them all in person, and they're able to connect a face to those songs and those lyrics, and they're able to see, contrary to the album name, it is real. I am able to connect to them in that way.
LUNA: I can’t even begin to imagine how affirming that must feel, especially in a live setting.
ELLA: Especially “Aphrodite,” that one every single show, just the way that it feels so spiritual with all of those women singing those lyrics together, and it's like a ritual. It's like this electricity.
LUNA: What’s the atmosphere like at Lollapalooza, both on stage and off? How does it compare to other shows you’ve played?
ELLA: I've loved it so far. Everything's been super great. I haven't been here super long. I popped in yesterday to see Faouzia, and that was incredible. I got to watch side stage. She saw me singing. I gave her a hug after I got to meet her. It was incredible. I had tears streaming down my face. I was so happy. It is looking like it's going to rain today, so we're going to figure that out with my two sets that are both outdoors. I have absolutely no idea what to expect from the crowds and the audience, from how these sets are going to be because it's my first time at a music festival, let alone Lollapalooza, let alone playing Lollapalooza. I have no idea what to expect.
LUNA: How do you personally prepare for a big performance like Lolla? Do you have any pre-show rituals or regimens that help you get into the right mindset before hitting the stage?
ELLA: I would say about 20 minutes before I go on, everyone knows to leave me alone because I get into Ella Red mode. I have to zone in super hard to not freak out and make sure I know everything that I'm doing and I don't want to talk to anyone. I don't want to say hi to anyone. It was really funny because on the last tour, my best friend Peggy was opening for me, and she came on stage with me one night and we were singing to each other and she looked startled when she looked in my eyes because I was glaring at her in my Ella Red mode. She looked startled. She was like, "Oh, I need to lock in and get in this with her.” She told me about it afterwards because she was like, "I forgot that I was on stage with Ella Red and not Ella, and it scared me.”
LUNA: What’s your favorite song to perform live that really gets the crowd into your set?
ELLA: I love opening with “Parasite” because when someone is seeing you for the first time, they're wondering what your confidence level is on stage. They're wondering what your vocal sounds like. They're wondering what your stage presence looks like, and you need to really win them over. I feel like with “Parasite,” I come out immediately with this disturbing, off-putting, what is this cherry blossom girl doing crawling around like an insect? But then at the same time, I have those really strong vocals at the end of “Parasite,” and so I feel like that's a really great way to initially lock them into what's going on and how the set is going to continue.
LUNA: How do you hope listeners — especially your femme audience — can connect with or find power in this new era of music from you? What emotions or messages do you want to leave with them?
ELLA: I think that with IT’S NOT REAL, there was a lot of anger I needed to let out, and there's also such strength and softness. With my next songs that I'm releasing, there's still so much anger in them and so much power in them. I'm also leaning into that soft side a little bit more, and so I want to still embrace that softness, but show that there are two sides of the same.
LUNA: What is fueling your fire right now that’s pushing you into this new era of your career?
ELLA: AI rage at AI is making me be like, let's show you what actual humans can do, and so that's why I'm leaning so much into experimenting too, because AI can only recreate what it's heard over and over and over again. Experimenting so much immediately removes that possibility.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
ELLA: I'm feeling very good, very excited about the rest of the year. I have the rest of my headlining tour that I'm on right now, and then another tour in October, and I'm hoping to continue touring through the end of the year and next year. At the same time, I'm starting to release my sophomore album at the end of this year, so it's going to be very very busy. There are no pauses, no breaks for Ella Red.
Audrey Hertel
